Le Monde | • Updated | By
All hands to battle at SFR. Tuesday, September 6, some of the employees of the French telecom operator has planned to strike. Rallies were held outside the headquarters of the group, in Seine-Saint-Denis and in shops in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lens, Nantes, Rennes and Nice. Reason for protest: the announcement in July of a workforce reduction plan, which provides in 2017 removing a third of the group’s workforce, or 5,000 of 15,000 corporate positions
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the rally at noon in front of the operator’s seat brought together under one hundred people including many union representatives and other companies militants and activists of the left front. Before the Champs-Elysées store, 160 people marched in the morning, according to the CGT. In Marseille, they were thirty at the same time before the SFR shop Canebière. A second rally was planned in the early afternoon.
According to the CGT, SFR 50 stores were closed on Tuesday and 424 450 employees in the SFR distribution branch, the more mobilized, were on strike. Management lived it in mid-day, 200 strikers
Read also:. Management of SFR offers without redundancies redundancy plan by 2019
This movement has not moved Michel Combes, Chairman and CEO of Altice, parent company of the french operator. “The strike does not affect the determination of management. The group’s reorganization is necessary and imperative “, launched the leader. By coincidence, the CEO was speaking on the eve of the group’s strategy, and commented on the reasons that led to Altice propose resuming 22.5% stake in SFR it did not already own in a transaction valued € 2.4 billion
Read also:. Strike at SFR: the social destruction is amplified in telecoms in France
Meanwhile, Mr. Combes does not necessarily have to worry about the consequences of the social movement. As massive as it is, the plan was signed on 4 August by the two majority unions, UNSA and CFDT, which makes it applicable and not contestable. “We wanted to secure the fact that there is no compulsory redundancies” , justifies Abdelkader Choukrane UNSA. So, only the CGT, which owns 15% of the vote, called for the strike to the side of SUD, a minority union only present in the customer service. The CFE-CGC, yet behind the movement itself has abandoned the social protest. “We do not call the strike. We opted for the legal route. Last week, we assigned the leadership in the Criminal Court, including trading interference “, justifies its representative, Manuela Boisramé
Read also:. Unions and the direction of SFR signed an agreement on voluntary departures of employees 5000
call centers also referred
Still, this breadth plan should not help – at least in the short term – Mr. Combes to realize part of the project group, which consists of Altice “Amazon customer relationship” . “I would not claim that we are at the level that we should be” , he admitted to so thinly veiled SFR.
In addition to the staff internally SFR also reorganizing its call centers. The operator, who had denounced the contracts of its main subcontractors, Arvato and Sitel, wants réinternaliser 50% of the customer relationship. Michel Combes also announced Monday the resumption of Intelcia 50 million. This operator Moroccan call centers working since 2007 with Numericable, SFR merged. Its founder, Karim Bernoussi is deemed close to Patrick Drahi. This acquisition is expected to enable Altice to improve its quality of service.
Meanwhile, thousands of employees of call centers (including 3 000 in France) have the worry about. “I do not understand that there are 10,000 call center agents who are still working for the group at the time of digital” , said Mr. Combes.
Another challenge expects the former head of Alcatel. It should here in October persuade the minority shareholders of SFR to exchange their shares against the shares Altice, to allow the Patrick Drahi group to take 100% of the French operator. “The SFR shareholders will enjoy the appreciation potential of US assets” , tried to convince the CEO of Altice. Altice has bought the United States Suddenlink and fourth US cable operator Cablevision. “Now Altice is divided into two poles, the United States and France, each generating 40% of Group cash. Before, France represented three quarters “, welcomed Michel Combes. After the exchange of shares, the largest shareholder of Altice, Patrick Drahi, will retain the majority of the voting rights.
The exchange of unequal titles
the operation will enable Altice to more easily use the cash SFR within the group. It will also avoid sharing special dividends. In 2015, SFR had to pay back 500 million of 2.5 billion euros in dividends to minority shareholders.
But the share swap offered by Altice SFR shareholders seems rather encourage the first at the expense of second. Indeed, after a difficult year, valuing SFR melted by 45% in one year. “The operation is opportunistic because the value of Altice is slightly higher than that of SFR” , confirms Jean-Michel Salvador, an analyst at AlphaValue. Minority shareholders may be tempted to raise the stakes. The group needs to acquire 95% of SFR capital to remove the operator from the coast.
Officially, this integration of 100% of SFR in Altice must complete the transformation of the group. “We are no longer a collection of assets, but an industry group that has made innovative and bold choices” , assured the CEO, noting that the strategy Altice was based both on the networks, contents (Altice had bought the rights to the English Premier League) and hearings. Will be created two new entities, “Altice Channels Factory” dedicated to the creation of channels on the fly, and “Altice Studios” for the original creation. “We want to replicate elsewhere the French model. We have already launched channels in Portugal and we are the first series creator in Israel “, said Michel Combes, without venturing to announce budgets or new programs.
Read also: SFR still losing subscribers and ended the first half in the red
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